About a year and a half into the lifespan of the Xbox Live Arcade, TMNT 1989 serves as a great barometer of the state of the service. Like most XBLA games, it’s a re-release of a game that came out over a decade ago. Also like most XBLA games, it is completely worthless from a single player perspective but when balanced by the social aspect of online multiplayer it ultimately becomes a very enjoyable experience. Although not much has been altered in this release compared to the arcade original, TMNT 1989 survives based on its solid co-operative gameplay and retro charm to ultimately become a worthwhile experience – provided you have Xbox LIVE.

Make no mistake, TMNT 1989 is both short (about twenty minutes) and repetitive. Although you can play as any of the four turtles, they are all fundamentally the same. True to the arcade set-up, you only need to use two buttons: X to attack and A to jump. Pressing A and then X will result in a jump attack, while hitting the buttons simultaneously results in a sideways slash which will kill all foot soldiers in range in one hit. That is, unless you’re Raphael. He inexplicably does a rolling kick which knocks enemies down but doesn’t kill them, making him both the worst and the only unique character in the game.

Although the two-button gameplay is quite simple, TMNT 1989 is actually quite challenging simply because of the sheer amount of enemies the game throws at you. Early packs of enemies are often easily dispatched with an X+A attack, but once foot soldiers start to carry weapons (ranging from javelins to hilarious Elmer Fudd style guns and bombs straight out of the end of Dr. Strangelove) it becomes increasingly difficult to avoid their attacks, and as you watch the game go on you will see your stock of lives dwindle at an ever-increasing rate. Speaking of which, the amount of lives you start with in an online game (19) seems to be well conceived to avoid frustrating for new players and boredom for the experienced. It’s worth noting that boss fights are generally easier than handling the throngs of enemies the game throws at you throughout a normal level, and most can be beaten easily by just hitting them once and then moving a bit, waiting for them to come to you, then repeating the process. Overall, apart from one heinous level where you have to kill bomb-dropping helicopters while riding a rocket-powered skateboard (undoubtedly the money-maker back in the arcades), TMNT 1989 strikes a difficulty level that is challenging but rarely frustrating. Some well-designed achievements like beating a boss while avoiding a certain amount of damage and avoiding freeze traps in the Technodrome add some variety and difficulty for repeat plays.

The most entertaining thing about the game probably isn’t even the gameplay, though. Simply put, TMNT 1989 oozes old school-charm and is a bit like rediscovering a movie you loved as a kid and enjoying it for entirely different reasons. The story is half-baked and rarely makes any sense, but is endearing nonetheless and is oftentimes a source of unintentional humour. Along those same lines, the script is hilarious, and muffled it’s impossible not to love a pixilated Rock Steady challenging you to “Come and get us, shellbrain!”. From a technical standpoint, both sound and graphics are right out of the late 80’s, which is infinitely more damning to the former than the latter, as the game features pretty crisp and cartoony graphics (reminiscent of SNES’ “Turtles in Time”) but muffled sound and an annoying MIDI soundtrack. Still, though, voice acting isn’t something usually seen in games this old and is handled competently, so kudos to that.

TMNT, objectively, has a lot of flaws. It’s short, simplistic, and repetitive. If you only want this for the single player game, this is a waste of money. However, the ability to go online and enjoy the team-based gameplay with some friends and perhaps even make some jokes at the expense of the game’s writers makes it easy to ignore its shortcomings. For 400 points this is a much better bargain than pumping quarters into the arcade machine (if you could even find one) and if you have some friends who enjoy a fun, casual game, you could soon find yourselves playing TMNT 1989 an awful lot.